As a new millennium dawned, Greg DiVilbiss envisioned Lawrence as a community brimming with potential for landing major employers drawn to the community’s educated work force, high quality of life and a new batch of first-class office space to be designed for the most discriminating of tenants.

Now, his optimism finally is starting to become reality.

The Bristol Groupe, a development company owned by DiVilbiss and other members of his family, is preparing to fill much of its long-underutilized Lawrence building with a regional office for Great American Insurance.

Great American plans to have 50 to 60 people working at Wakarusa Corporate Centre by Feb. 1, most of them transplants from offices being consolidated from Topeka and Lenexa.

But for DiVilbiss and members of his family – who sank $12.7 million into land, construction and tenant finishes for the building’s opening in 2001 and subsequent upgrades – simply securing the center’s first major tenant is both a relief and, they hope, a signal of things to come.

“It’s taken awhile to have a bit of corporate success, but it’s paying off – not only for us, but for the community as a whole,” DiVilbiss said. “That’s the real winner.”

The deal signals an upturn for an office market that has seen its share of difficulties in recent years.

Through July, the vacancy rate for office space in Lawrence had climbed to 14.2 percent, up from 12.8 percent just six months earlier, according to a market study by Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group, a real estate brokerage in Lawrence.

The increase comes after the market had recovered to a vacancy rate of 11.8 percent by the end of 2004, down from 15.7 percent in 2003 and 17.8 percent in 2001 and 2002, according to the survey.

Hanging on

“Everything had just cratered,” said Marilyn Bittenbender, a broker for Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group. “The good news now is we’re seeing some activity, and this is a nice opportunity. That’s great, to have that floor leased. They’ve certainly been waiting a long time, to hang on and wait for this day.”

Dan Kirk, left, and Greg DiVilbiss, partners in The Bristol Groupe, say they are relieved to have secured a tenant for nearly 20,000 square feet on the second floor of the Wakarusa Corporate Centre, near 18th Street and Wakarusa Drive. The floor has been vacant since the building opened five years ago.

Wakarusa Corporate Centre had expected to open its expansive building – 55,000 square feet, split on two floors – amid much fanfare, but struggled out of the gate.

The building opened at 4910 Corporate Centre Drive just a few days after the 9/11 terror attacks, a disaster that would cripple economic expansion, scuttle business plans and lead managers and relocation specialists to curb their activities.

What had been on the top of prospect lists in the preceding months soon had found itself with few paying prospects for class A office space in the heart of the Wakarusa Drive business corridor, just west of an intersection with 18th Street.

“It’s been painful,” said Dan Kirk, DiVilbiss’ brother and partner in The Bristol Groupe.

But the building endured.

Hoss & Brown Engineers relocated its Topeka headquarters to the first floor in 2003. Then came SS&C Business & Tax Services Inc. and, earlier this year, Orthodontic Innovations. Morgan Stanley briefly operated a temporary office on the first floor.

But the second floor had yet to secure a paying customer. Only charitable and social events – including a reception welcoming Mark Mangino as football coach, and a Lawrence Own Your Own Art Show – have graced the building’s expansive concrete floors since the building’s opening, unless you count the sheltered drag races Kirk conducts for his children and their electric Jeeps.

ABOUT three-quarters of the second floor at the Wakarusa Corporate Centre, 4910 Corporate Centre Drive, will be occupied by at least 50 employees of Great American Insurance. Upgrades will cost 22,000 and could begin this month.

“It’s been very difficult,” Kirk said, “but we knew if we could just hold on it would pay off, and it’s starting to.”

Today, black construction paper still covers the fiberglass insulation stuffed below the second-floor’s exterior windows. The coverings are functional leftovers from the Hearts of Gold Ball, a fundraiser for Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Construction to come

The paper won’t last much longer. As early as this week, contractors will start work on $722,000 of upgrades to prepare nearly 20,000 square feet of the space for Great American’s newest regional office for crop insurance operations.

Great American has an eight-year lease for the space, and plans call for keeping the floor plan flexible enough so that the company could expand into the rest of the southeast corner as corporate needs demand.

The lease even has DiVilbiss thinking big once again. Original plans for Wakarusa Corporate Centre provided for a five-building complex complete with water features, the latest in communications infrastructure and enough parking to accommodate companies that might want to call Lawrence home.

“When Sept. 11 happened, I was working on a couple of gigantic leads – and then it just shut down,” DiVilbiss said. “Now things are loosening up again. People are looking for things.

“Now we’ll need more inventory. That’s still our plan. We own 25 acres there. It’s just a matter of getting the next big tenant to sign.”